All About Me: Life In Lists
If one of the most common fears people have is speaking in public, when it comes to scrapbooking, I suspect more than one layout artist’s biggest fear is journaling. Whether you’re actually afraid to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) or if you just don’t like writing, today’s blog post will be right up your alley.
This is SugarBabe Angie, and I’m back with another installment on All About Me Scrapbooking. It’s part of our year-long focus on getting more pages about you in your albums so the people who love you have a permanent record of who you are, where you came from, and the unique and valuable story you have to tell.
The biggest difference between a photo album and a scrapbook lies not in the pretty papers and decorations we add, but in the words we use on the page. Our words provide context for the images – not just when and where they were taken, who is in them, and what they are doing, but the story behind the story … the lessons learned … the things that were said that a photograph can’t capture.
When you start creating scrapbook layouts about yourself, it can feel overwhelming to wrap your brain around all the words you’ll need to paint a full picture of who you are, what you believe, what you value and who you love. So this month, I’m easing you into it by focusing on using lists to enhance your scrapbook layouts.
February’s All About Me blog post introduced this idea when we talked about scrapbooking our Favorite Things. Many of these layouts – whether focusing on monthly favorites, seasonal or holiday favorites, or topical lists of favorite things – were presented in a simple list format. So this month, we’re taking the idea of journaling in a list even further.
Are you familiar with the 52 Lists series of journals? Compiled by Moorea Seal, these hardback journals provide one prompt each week for a year with each volume focused around a topic like happiness, bravery, and togetherness. The best part? All you have to do is make a list! It can be as simple or as wordy as you like.
As I flipped through one of these journals in the bookstore, it occurred to me that any one of these prompts would make a fantastic All About Me scrapbook page. So I bought 4 of them. (Yeah, self control isn’t one of my strong suits.) I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going to use the journals as a scratchpad to compile my lists before scrapping them or if I’m going to make a list of the prompts for myself and gift the empty journals to a friend, but either option is a good one!
Let me share with you just a few of the prompts from these books:
“List the ways you can ‘fake it till you make it’ in being happy.” (List 32, 52 Lists for Happiness)
“List how where you are right now fulfills dreams and desires of your past.” (List 43, 52 Lists for Happiness)
“List the things you are ready to rid yourself of: things in your home, in your closet, and in your heart.” (List 49, 52 Lists for Happiness)
“List the mantras and guiding words you want to live by.” (List 7, 52 Lists for Togetherness)
“List the things that you prefer to do alone.” (List 13, 52 Lists for Togetherness)
“List the ways you have helped your loved ones through hard times.” (List 44, 52 Lists for Togetherness)
“List the ways you want to grow and improve as a person: emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and physically.” (List 5, 52 Lists for Bravery)
“List the things that felt black and white when you were younger but feel more gray today.” (List 29, 52 Lists for Bravery)
“List the things you would tell your younger self to help them face the challenges or scary things in their life.” (List 36, 52 Lists for Bravery)
“List the people you don’t know in real life whom you find soothing. This could include authors, celebrities, or people you follow on social media.” (List 8, 52 Lists for Calm)
“List the labels and expectations that have been placed on you by family, friends, colleagues, and others.” (List 13, 52 Lists for Calm)
“List the things you have been told not to do.” (List 36, 52 Lists for Calm)
I was so excited by my find that I searched Amazon for more books and journals with list prompts. I found one that I’d recommend as a great starting point for anyone beginning an All About Me journey; it’s Listography: Your Life In Lists by Lisa Nola. Personally, I’m not a fan of the illustrations in the journal, so I’ll definitely use this as more of a workbook … a place to compile my lists before I sit down with Photoshop and the gorgeous kits here in the Sweet Shoppe and turn each one into a lovely 12×12 layout. But the prompts are fantastic! They include:
- List places you’ve lived
- List your past jobs
- List the countries you’ve visited
- List your favorite toys you played with as a child
- List things you’d like to change about the world
- List the things you would save if your home was on fire
- List bad things you did as a kid
- List your memorable injuries and illnesses
- List things you wish you had a second chance to do
- … and 59 other prompts to help you write lists about your life.
I also picked up a copy of 642 Lists to Write by the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. I wouldn’t recommend this as an entry to All About Me list-writing, as the list topics cover a wide range and seem more geared towards creative writing. But if you’re looking for something a little more advanced, this might be a good option. I’m excited to tackle these in the future – like “The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, lust, sloth, and greed. What are the most impressive ways you’ve committed each of them?” and “Your favorite swear words, ranked by frequency of use.” Talk about getting real with your list-making!
In our next edition of “All About Me”, we’ll start digging into some of the more writing-heavy layouts and prompts for recording your story. In the meanwhile, I hope this post – and these fantastic guided journals – will give you a way to dip your virtual toes in the All About Me writing waters. A way to ease you in, as it were, to including more words on the scrapbook pages you create about yourself. Remember: you have a unique and valuable story, and there’s someone who needs to read it. So start making lists and turning them into gorgeous layouts all about you!
